Meghalaya Govt safely brings back 66 students from Manipur 

Shillong, May 5: Following swift action by the Government of Meghalaya, 66 students from Meghalaya, studying in different institutions in Imphal, the capital city of Manipur, have been safely evacuated from the ethnic violence hit state.

The students safely reached the Guwahati airport on Friday night, where they were greeted by Meghalaya government officials. They were being brought back to the state in buses arranged by the government, till the filing of this report. Depending to where they reside, the students were being transported to Garo Hills and Shillong.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma had on Thursday informed that there are around 200 students from Meghalaya studying in Manipur, mostly in Imphal. He had also assured that the government was taking all measures to ensure that these students are evacuated safely and brought back to Meghalaya at the earliest.

Violent clashes broke out on Wednesday evening in Manipur, which intensified overnight with counter-attacks being mounted by rival communities in retaliation, mostly between the Meitai community and the Kuki tribals, after ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Government and security forces have claimed that the situation across Manipur has been brought under control through coordinated actions by all stakeholders.

Talking to Hub News about the unprecedented fear their experienced during the odd 36-hour long ordeal they went through from Wednesday night to Friday morning, one of the evacuated students, Joyshelman D Sangma, said Indian Army escorted them from their hostels till the Imphal Airport, where they met the delegation of Meghalaya government led by health minister Ampareen Lyngdoh. “This is our first experience in such situation… we have only seen this in movies and in news like Ukraine and Russia war but now we have experienced with our own eyes… the situation was very tense, we couldn’t sleep at night, there were burning of vehicle, houses everywhere, outside the campus, and whole Imphal city as well… we were so scared on what would happen to us… there were no security in campus… we couldn’t sleep at night,” he recalled.

Another student, Lanosha Bareh, said they were extremely panicked when they learnt about the clashes and heard the firing and bomb explosions near their resident. “Around 9 PM onwards (on May 3, 2023), we were staying in that location where there was huge chaos taking place… it started suddenly and all the firing was taking place, they were blasting, throwing some bombs, from there we started panicking… since the area where our college is situation and our hostel as well, it was surrounded by tribal people, so most of the chao was there,” she said.

“For the whole night since it started till date, we have been living in fear… we never know what will happen next. We keep preparing ourselves, preparing our essential documents, all the essential things we need to prioritise, so we just keep along so that no matter what happens we’ll just run… that was the fear we were living with when we were there,” she said while recalling the ordeal.

She added that many students panicked again after reaching airport since their flight got delayed. They panicked thinking the government wasn’t serious about rescuing them, but later learnt that there was a delay communication due to the suspension of internet by Manipur Government.